Artificial shrubs and/or trees are generally characterized by a main body or trunk from which branches and/or limbs extend. Typically the branches and/or limbs constitute a body of relatively constant thickness which extend from the trunk. Although the thickness of the branch and/or limb may occasionally diminish from the supported end to the cantilevered end there is lacking the authentic appearance of a real branch and/or limb. This is due to the fact that the branch and/or limb of the prior art is commonly affixed to the trunk in a relatively crude manner, such as by insertion thereof into a bore or hole drilled into or otherwise excavated from the trunk. A glue or some other form of adhesive commonly fixes the branch and/or limb in the bore when it is driven into the bore manually. Craftsmen skilled in this construction heretofore have ignored the crude appearance of a branch and/or limb extending from the trunk with a relatively constant thickness starting at the trunk and extending for some distance therefrom. In other words there is no gradual diminishment of the thickness from the base of the branch. The absence of an expanded base in the branch betrays and reveals the very crude and artificial appearance of the construction, thus identifying the shrub or tree as aesthetically false.
The reason for this deficiency in the appearance of prior art shrubs and trees is due to the fact that the solution to the problem is neither obvious nor easy. Although it is obvious that one cannot introduce a branch or limb having a continuously expanding thickness towards its base, as is naturally the form of a branch or limb, into a bore of constant diameter, if there is nothing obvious about the manner in which this problem can be overcome. Nor is there an obvious manufacturing technique for economically affixing an authentic branch or limb having a naturally looking expanded base and diminished cantilever end into the trunk or supporting branch on a massed produced, repetitive, and economical basis.